1. Field of the Invention
The invention herein relates to devices for pulling electrical wire and cable and optical fiber cable, and particularly to devices for use in residential, commercial or industrial construction and electrical contracting.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wire pulling in commercial, residential and industrial construction, including renovation and remodeling, presents a wide variety of conditions and problems for the electrical contractor. The wire or cable to be pulled may be of a wide variety of sizes and strengths. Smaller diameter wires may be bundled into larger cables. Computer and other communication wires and cables may present cross-sectional profiles other than round. Wires may need to be pulled simultaneously from several locations into and through a single conduit. Cable materials may present special problems of susceptibility to damage, such as when optical glass fiber must be pulled.
In the past, most wire pulling machines have been stationary devices which were plugged into regular AC power lines and which were designed for pulling only a single type of cable or pulling at a single pulling rate. Such devices have many parts and are unwieldy and difficult to position and use. Further, their limited scope of operation required electrical contractors to keep an inventory of a variety of different pulling machines for different services.
Two years ago I developed and introduced the first practical portable, battery operated wire pulling machine to the electrical contracting industry. That product has proved highly popular and has overcome many of the problems previously encountered by the prior art devices. However, experience with that device has led to my recognition of the need for substantial further developments.
For instance, non-portable prior art devices are secured into position by such means as bolting, strapping and the like. Such, of course, is both impracticable and undesirable for a portable device such as my previous unit. Also, past units have been either AC powered or battery (DC) powered, but did not have the capability to utilize a variety of different power sources or to utilize them in different ways.